Veteran Rangers Reliever Has Put Together Exceptional 2025 Season So Far

The Texas Rangers have received exceptional performances from their bullpen as of late, and one in particular has been truly outstanding this season.

May 27, 2025; Arlington, Texas, USA; Texas Rangers relief pitcher Hoby Milner (41) throws during the seventh inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Globe Life Field. | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

The Texas Rangers have had a pretty difficult start to their 2025 campaign, sitting at 31-35 on the year. They are currently No. 4 in the American League West, ahead of only the Athletics. This rough start has been heavily influenced by injury, but also a lack of consistency when at the plate, which has been somewhat stabilized with coaching changes. Ultimately the rough road has continued due to a lack of production from those who would be expected to carry the offensive load.

They are now at the point where players are being marked as trade candidates this summer, and their power to make the All-Star roster is relatively weak as of now. Luckily, they have had a few core pieces running the show and keeping things afloat. The pitching has been solid, especially a few core contributors out of the bullpen, most notably, Hoby Milner and Chris Martin, who have both been outstanding through the spring and early summer.

Milner has been somewhat of a surprise as well. After a tough showing in 2024 with the Milwaukee Brewers, the Rangers picked him up, and it seems as though this may be one of their better decisions of the offseason. With a 1.71 ERA, 27 strikeouts, a 0.916 WHIP and 225 ERA+, he has shown to be one of the most important players on this current roster.

What Has Changed to Allow Milner to Perform at This Level?

What becomes really interesting with Milner is going into the analytics, as all of his pitches have seen a decline in velocity, his usage rate for each one is roughly the same, and many of his pitches have similar movement profiles as well. So what has changed?

Much of his success has not revolved around changing the pitches themselves, but rather the sequencing in which he utilizes them. In 2024, his sweeper and four-seam fastball both had 20% or higher put-away percentage according to Baseball Savant, and he nearly never utilized the changeup that way, only sitting at 2.9%. In 2025, however, he is relying much more on that fastball, which is up from 21.1% to 27.8%, and the changeup is up to 18.8%, so he is clearly beginning to use his pitches in a different order, and is focusing on not giving batters just one look in a full count or a two-strike count.

This provides him with the opportunity to work the fastball into his repertoire later in counts, as batters are seeing different types of pitches mixed in with it, and with the speed differential being so slim between each pitch type for him, they break differently with similar velocity.

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